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BERM.

X.]-'

THE HIDDEN

LIFE

OF

A

CHRISTIAN.

1ST

He

knows

my

diligence

and

my

holy

labour

to please

hirn: He

knows

the wrestlings and the

conflicts

that

I

go

through

hourly,

to

maintain

my

close walking with

my

God

:

He

knows

that

I

live,

though

it

is

but

a

feeble

life;

and

the charges

of

the

World

against

me

are

false

and

malicious."

It

is

with

a relish

of

holy

pleasure

that

the

Christian

sometimes,' in

secret, appeals to our Lord

Jesus,

Christ,

as

Peter

did,

and

says,

"

Lord

thou

who know-

est

all things,

knowest

that

I

love thee,"

John

xxi.

1

7.

IUd

Consolation.

It

is

a

matter of unspeakable

corn-

fort

to a

christian,

that

the

most

terrible

things

to

a

sin=

ner,

are become the greatest

blessings

to

a

saint:

And

these

are death

and

judgment.

What

can

bemore

dread=

ful

to

those

who

know

net"

God

than

those

two

words

are

;

for they

put

an eternal

end

to

all

their present plea-

sures,

and

to all

their

hopes.

But

what

greater

happi

ness can a

saint

wish

or hope

for,

than death and

judg-

ment

will

put

him in

possession of?

The

one carries

his

soul upward where

his life

is,

that

is,

to

God

and

Christ

in heaven; the other

brings

his life

down to

earth,

where

his

body

is,

for

Christ

shall then come to raise his

dust

from

the

grave.

I

confess,

I

finished

my

former discourse

on

this

text,

with a

meditation

on

death and judgment;

how

the

gloom which

hung

around

the

saint

in

this life,

is

all

dis-

pelled

at that blessed hour;

and

he who was

unknown

and

despised among men, stands

forth

with

honour

amongst admiring angels: His bidden manner

of

life

is

for

ever

at

an end.

But

in

this discourse the

secret

and

glorious springs

of

his life,

vt.

God and Christ,

will

naturally

lead

us

to the same delightful

meditations

of

futurity,

as

the hidden

manner of it

has

done;

and

there

is

so

rich

a

variety

of

new

and transporting

scenes

and

ideas attending

that

subject,

that

I

have

rio

need to

tire

you

with

unpleasing repetition, though I

resume the glo-

rious

theme.

Let

my

consolations

proceed

then,

and let

the saints

rejoice.

At the moment

"of

death, the soul

may

say,

"

Farewel;

for

ever,

sins;

and

sorrows,

and

perplexities;

farewell

temptations of the

alluring, and the affrighting

kind

neither

the vanities, nor the

terrors of

this world, shall

reach

me

any

more;

for

I

shall

from this rnorpent for